Podscape Submissions are Now Open
The Podscape, a joint project between Magellan AI and Sounds Profitable, is a biannual infographic designed to give a bird’s-eye view of the business side of podcasting. A city map, in essence, charting out various neighborhoods in which podcasting companies live based on what services they provide. Every six months we regroup and process new submissions, update existing ones, and tweak any changes necessary to keep this living document going. In anticipation of our Winter update, the new Podscape submission form is live now and will be taking new submissions until end-of-day, Friday, November 21st.
Netflix Is in Talks to License Video Podcasts From iHeartMedia by Ashley Carman
According to Bloomberg’s sources, Netflix is in active talks to license video podcasts distributed by iHeartMedia. Reportedly the licensing includes exclusivity, so much like the existing Spotify/Netflix deal, full episodes of the chosen podcasts would no longer be available on YouTube.
Podcasting’s powerful resonance: Acast’s Podcast Pulse 2025
The Podcast Pulse is built from three studies, including a global consumer study conducted by Differentology in August with 2,600 global consumers spread across ten markets. Podcasts remain a bastion of trust and credibility with consumers, as of 1,663 respondents who answered a question regarding how much they trust product or brand recommendations from various sources, podcasters tied with journalists for the top spot at 33% (YouTubers came second with 31%, followed by social media influencers at 28% and celebrities at 25%). 64% of the overall global survey pool say they trust podcast hosts to give genuine endorsements, and 70% say a recommendation from a podcast host made them consider a brand they’d never heard of before that podcast ad.
Quarterly benchmark report Q3 2025 Edition
Magellan AI has a new quarterly report built from sampling over 94,000 podcasts across four languages and seven countries. Key findings include a 26% increase of podcast ad spend year-over-year, nine out of ten top spenders in Q3 also being top senders in Q2, and a 41% increase in brands advertising on podcasts for the first time (1,689 new brands in all). To go over the report in detail, Magellan AI is hosting free a 15 to 20 minute webinar on Tuesday, November 18th at 12:00 p.m. EST.
Robert Tuchman on AudienceLift and Publisher Data Transparency
Amaze Media Labs co-founder Robert Tuchman sat down for an interview with Sounds Profitable’s Bryan Barletta regarding AudienceLift’s new Publisher Data Transparency feature. The new feature is available to AudienceLift clients whose campaigns meet a minimum threshold ($2,500, while the tool is developed and scaled). As the name implies, clients can access full visibility into which publishers their show’s trailer is being run on using a combination of publisher IDs, domain IDs, and an internal list of brand-safe/premium publishers.
As for the rest of the news…
- Today’s episode of The Casey Adams Show features Acast CEO Greg Glenday to discuss industry consolidation and the future of podcasting.
- Nick Castner has announced his next role is at Google and YouTube as a Strategic Partner Manager for Political Creators. Congrats!
- Red Seat Ventures has announced they are now the exclusive sales partner for The 33rd Team, including their productions like the St. Brown Brothers Podcast.
- RedCircle has launched a new AI tool dubbed Mic Check, which scans podcast ad reads for accuracy, tone, and freshness before they’re sent out live. Built into RedCircle’s Advertising Platform (RAP), Mic Check will check (har har) host-read ads to make sure they hit approved scripts and/or talking points and provide “human-like” feedback.
- Libsyn has signed an exclusive one-year advertising partnership with Strictly Stalking, a weekly true crime podcast specifically dedicated to the crime of stalking.
